Blue Christmas Without Elvis is a photograph by Kathy White which was uploaded on January 9th, 2013.
Blue Christmas Without Elvis
This photo was taken at the Athens Christmas Park Land of Lights theme park. It was opened in 1998 and is family owned and operated. They have... more
by Kathy White
Title
Blue Christmas Without Elvis
Artist
Kathy White
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
This photo was taken at the Athens Christmas Park Land of Lights theme park. It was opened in 1998 and is family owned and operated. They have grown every year and have become a tradition for Christmas festivities every year. It is located on N.W. Loop 7 in the East Texas city of Athens. The park is more than 1 mile long and has over 4 million lights, including more than 50 different musical scenes and 50 motion controlled lighted scenes in addition to 7 tunnels and 10 arches, and 1500 wood cutouts. They have so many wonderful lighted displays that are designed and constructed by the owners. This blue house features a life size Elvis in his famous stance playing his guitar and singing in front of the microphone. A lighted Christmas tree is in the showcase with him. Over the speaker system installed throughout the park, you hear the King of Rock N Roll singing "Blue Christmas." How fitting because at this point, as you are driving through the mile or so long park, you are passing through a beautiful tunnel of blue Christmas lights and you see Elvis' display off to the left as you peer through the blue lights! It is a beautiful, peaceful point in the park experience as you remember the King singing one of his most famous Christmas songs!
When Elvis Presley released "Blue Christmas for his 1957 LP Elvis' Christmas Album, he cemented the status of the song, which had previously been recorded by other artists, as a rock-and-roll holiday classic. His performance of "Blue Christmas" during a 1968 television special is the only video footage that exists of Elvis singing a Christmas song, according to a website of Elvis facts that I found. Before he begins the song, Elvis states: "I'd like to do my favorite Christmas song of the ones I've recorded..."
The world lost Elvis physically when he died on August 16, 1977 at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee. He was 42 at the time of his death. The words to his favorite Christmas song "Blue Christmas" say
" I'll have a blue Christmas without you.
I'll be so blue just thinking about you
Decorations of red on a green Christmas tree
Won't be the same, dear, if you're not here with me."
There are moments, indeed, when many think of that song and that it is a "Blue Christmas without Elvis."
But his music lives on through air play from satellite and local radio stations, private collections of his vast recordings, and in the hearts of his many, many devoted fans.
Uploaded
January 9th, 2013